Bee smoker



Feb. 2'4"'9 E951 G, A, JACKSON 2,543,409

BEE SMOKER Filed July 1, 1948 Patented Feb. 27,v 1951 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

This invention relates to bee smokers of the type generally used by beekeepers and consists of an improved hand-operated draft bellows rigidlysecured to a fire box or lbody in which smoke is produced by the slowburning or smoldering -of a suitable fuel.

Honey bees are greatly irritated by hot smoke and it is desirable tohave such devices produce a dense but cool blast. That is not alwayspossible with the commonly used smoker, since when the bellows iscollapsed the air blast from it enters below the fuel grate and, hence,the burning `of the fuel is greatly stimulated and a hot smoke isdischarged from the nozzle. It is, of course, necessary to vigorouslyoperate the bellows after the fuel is ignited to get the fuel in acondition in which it will smolder and throw oi smoke, but after the4fuel is well ignited the bellows may be less vigorously operated.However, with the most commonly used smoker all of the air from thebellows is directed to the air inlet in the burner body below the fuelgrate and whenever the bellows is operated the re is stimulated and,hence, the discharging smoke is relatively hot.

It has been proposed to provide such smokers with an additional orsecond air inlet from the bellows into the body at a point above thefire grate, and to employ separate valves to control or cut off the twoinlets. The manipulation of the two small and inconveniently Iplacedvalves is difficult and tedious, especially when the user is wearinggloves, but these valves must be properly set if the smoker is toproduce smoke of the desired temperature.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide an improveddouble-valve device which is easily operated to simultaneously open oneinlet and close the other, so that the smoker may be readily adjusted tothrow all of the blast from the bellows below the grate to stimulate there or to throw all of it into the smoke that issues from the nozzle tomake a relatively cool smoke blast.

Other objects and advantages will become ap parent from the followingdetailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention, inconnection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a bee smoker with parts broken away andin section.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on line 2--2 of Fig. 1 on a reduced scale.

Fig. 3 is a detail horizontal section on line 3-3 of Fig. l.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the numeral I 0 denotes the furnace or rebox of the usual cylindrical form having an open top closed by a coverII suitably hinged at I2 and provided with an inclined smoke dischargenozzle I3. Within the box near its bottom is the usual fuel supportinggrate I4 beneath which air is admitted through usual tube l5 from acollapsible bellows I6.

The bellows is Iixedly spaced from the fire box and differs from theusual draft device in that its vertical rigid wall I1 is formed with anupper blast discharge opening I8 in addition to the lower one I9 locatedopposite the tube I5, and in that the air blasts from the two openingsI8, I9 are controlled by a double-valve member generally indicated bythe numeral 20. This member 20 is preferably in the form of arectangular strip of wood or other suitable material mounted forvertical sliding movement in a sheet metal, channel-shaped guide 2Iprovided along its vertical edges with flanges 22 secured by nails orother fastenings 23 to the outer face of the wooden wall I1. In thelower portion of the guide ZI is an opening 24 alignedrwith the openingI9 and the tube I5. A lower valve opening 25 is formed in the lowerportion of slide 20 to coact with the said openings I9 and 24, as seenin Fig. 1. An upper valve opening 26 is formed in the upper portion ofslide 20 to similarly coact with the opening I8 and an opening 21 formedin the upper portion of the guide.

Y The blast discharged through these upper openings is directed into thesmoke as it leaves the nozzle I3. As shown in Fig. 1, an upwardlyinclined tube 30 is axially alined with the openings I8 and 2'! and issecured in a collar 3| attached to the valve guide. The free end of tube30 carries a surrounding ange 32 adapted to be engaged by a similarflange 33 carried by the lower end of an inclined tube 34 secured bybrackets 35 on the top of the nozzle. The anges 32 and 33 are preferablyin the form offlat circular plates or disks having openings whichregister with the bores of the tubes 30 and 34; and when the nozzle I3is swung on the hinge I2 to its closed position said anges come inface-to-face contact. To aid in aligning them I preferably form on thetop of the disk 33 an angularly projecting lip 36 which engages theupper edge of the disk 32 as shown in Fig. 6. The discharge end of tube34 terminates close to the end of the nozzle I3 and is slightly curvedto direct the air from the bellows across the stream of smoke which isdischarging from the nozzle. The blast from the tube 34 tends to suck oreject the smoke from the nozzle, and with this arrangement of partsthere can be no back pressure in the smoker body ID as may be the casewhen the upper blast from the bellows is directed into the fire box orbody. Another advantage of this arrangement is that there are no extraparts within the smoker body or its cover to become covered with a sootydeposit thus clogging the smoker parts other than the nozzle which canbe easily cleaned. Further with this arrangement and the provision ofthe lower air inlet I5 which always remains open to the atmosphere evenwhen the lower valve is closed, sufficient air may at all times enterbeneath the grate to support slow combustion or smoldering of the fuel,and thus prevent extinguishment of the re for lack of air when thesmoker is in use or when it is not being used but is to be kept burningready for immediate use.

In the smoker the valve openings and 26 are so positioned relative tothe discharge openings I9 and I8 in the bellows wall that when theopening 26 is aligned with the openings I8 and 21 to permit thedischarge of the upper blast, the opening 25 is out o1" alignment withthe openings I9 and 2li and, hence, the valve slide will prevent anyblast entering the bottom of the lire box. When the slide is pushed downto the 11min of its downward movement, its lower end strikes a stopflange 3'! formed at the bottom of the guide. When in that loweredposition opening 25 will be aligned with openings I9 and 24 to throw ablast beneath the grate while opening 25 will be out of alignment withopenings I8 and 21 so that there will be no upper blast. To facilitateplacing the slide in the nist-mentioned position its upper portion maybe provided with stop shoulders 39 to engage stop flanges or lips 40formed at the top of the guide as seen in Fig. 2.

The upper end of the valve slide is extended above the top of thebellows to form a nger piece or handle il in which a finger opening 42may be formed. Since the top of the bellows is about aligned with thetop of the fire box, the finger piece 4I will be readily accessible andmay be easily moved to either of its two extreme positions, even thoughthe user may be wearing gloves.

The double-valve slide is held frictionally in position between theguide 2| and wall Il and will remain in the position to which it may bemoved. By simply pushing downwardly on the nger piece or pullingupwardly thereon to move the slide to the limit of either of its twoextreme positions, the user either may cause the bellows to direct airbeneath the grate to stimulate burning of the fuel, or cut off the lowerblast and throw all of the air from the bellows into the smoke passingfrom the nozzle to cool the smoke.

The bellows and fire box may be connected by the usual upper and lowerbrackets but if desired,

30 the brackets G3 may be fastened to the guide 2| as shown.

Minor variations in form and arrangement of parts are, of course,possible and are contemplated in the claims which follow.

I claim:

l. In a bee smoker having a fire box rigidly connected to a bellows, inspaced relation therewith, the bellows having valve-controlled, lowerand upper air blast discharge openings and the fire box having a fuelgrate above its bottom and a hinged cover with an upwardly and laterallydirected smoke discharge nozzle, means for directing the blasts from thebellows comprising an air inlet tube opening into the re box beneath itsgrate and having its outer end open to the atmosphere and arranged toreceive the blast yfrom the lower discharge opening of the bellows; anair discharge tube fixed to the bellows to receive the blast from theupper discharge opening of the bellows, and a coacting air dischargetube fixed upon the cuter side of the laterally directed inclined nozzleand having its lower end in axial alignment with the bellows-carriedtube when the cover is in closed position, the upper end of saidcoacting tube being arranged to direct the upper air blast across thesmoke as it issues from the end of the nozzle.

2. The structure of claim 1 together with annular flanges on theadjacent ends of said coacting tubes, said anges being in abuttingcontact when the cover is in closed position.

3. The structure of claim 2 together with an aligning projection on oneof said iianges to engage the other flange when the cover is in closedposition.

4. In a bee smoker, a re box having a smoke discharge nozzle at its top,a bellows iixed to said fire box and having valve-controlled lower andupper, air blast discharge openings, a tube attached to the lowerportion of said fire-box, the lower blast being discharged through saidtube into said re box beneath its grate, and an air discharge tube xedupon the upper side of said nozzle and arranged to receive the upperblast, the outer end of said air discharge tube being arranged to directthe upper air blast across the smoke as it issues from the end of thenozzle.

GLENN A. JACKSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 478,006 Hill June 28, 18921,386,283 Shrader Aug. 2, 1921 2,291,563 Rotter et al. July 28, 1942FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 838,641 France Mar. 10, 1939

